Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Moore raises a very important point. Those who want to try and gain some environmental credentials by supporting someone else’s election commitment in this place will need to deal with this hard fact: even with the renewable energy target in place Australia’s contribution to climate change will continue to worsen. Australia’s carbon pollution will continue to rise, as Senator Moore alluded to, to 120 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020. That is, we will have 120 per cent of our 2000 emissions by 2020, so we will continue to contribute increasingly to climate change.

What we would like the Senate to consider is this: unless we face the hard truth and legislate a cap on carbon pollution the fact is that Australia’s carbon pollution will continue to rise, Australia’s emissions will continue to rise and Australia’s contribution to climate change will— (Time expired)